What fun to see everyone so rested and excited to reconnect with classmates! Just as many grownups like to mingle and catch up in the staffroom with colleagues they haven’t seen in a while, we spent a bit of time on our first day back chatting and sharing our stories of our time off over Winter Break. Lots of laughter and smiles, then we buckled down to work! The Primaries have a goal to learn more about parts of speech, deepening our thinking, and adding details. We’ve started with Nouns and Adjectives. Soon we will move on to Verbs and Adverbs. We will also work toward improving the legibility of our work by focusing on proper pencil grip and letter formation (open web beside the thumb, pull vs push; curves and straight lines pulling to the left, etc.) The Intermediates have a goal of deepening our critical thinking skills. We will encourage each other to push past “comprehending the main idea” and to look for connections to help develop our skills in analysis and synthesis. Exciting times are ahead!
Thurs/Fri group: Did you rise to the challenge? Just before the break I offered the Intermediate group an invitation to ‘front load’ several Social Emotional Learning concepts and Core Competencies that we will explore in this new term. If you were Intrinsically motivated (see what I did there?) and chose to do the activity, please bring it with you on your first day back.
It seems Winter may have finally arrived. With the falling temperatures Vancouver might even get some snow. VSB Rarely closes school over snow. But if you are unsure that the school will be open, Please Do Not phone the school! Instead, check one of these sources: CBC (690 AM or 88.1 FM), CKNW (980 AM), CKWX (NEWS 1130 AM), BCTV (Global) (cable channel 11), CITY TV (cable channel 13) Or check the VSB website for updates.
Looking ahead: Hold The Date for a Field Trip: Mon/Tues group hold Tuesday March 5th. Thur/Fri group hold Thursday March 14th. Details to follow.
Parents looking for free resources and mini lessons about the quirks of English spelling and parts of speech might want to check out this site on “X” (formerly knows as Twitter): @englishclasse_